It's not a strongly worded protest or shrill threat, but rather, a polite request for BP to take a look at his SurfSoaker Booms--a new breed of containment tool that actually absorbs oil in such a way that it can be salvaged and recycled for reuse.
"There are already new land fills being created just for the cleanup effort," says Santley. "This will seriously reduce the need for them. Everything we collect can be reused. That's potentially hundreds of millions of pounds."
Of course, Santley is hardly the only one who thinks he has a good idea to help clean up the Gulf region. The EPA has been bombarded with more than 18,000 suggestions and recommendations since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20. Fortunately for Santley, he's connected to environmental players who are getting him noticed.
"Santley has a track record," says Gary Petersen, a pioneer of the recycling movement who's currently serving as Chairmen of the Board for Green Seal, the nation's leading authority on verifying green products. Peterson's extensive track record lends credibility to anything he backs, and right now he's a fan of Joe Santley.
"I got to know him when he was making efforts in his own industry," says Petersen, "Joe's Green Foam surfboard blanks are making a huge statement to surfing consumers. They're the first made out of recycled byproduct. So when he told me he had something else for me to look at I was eager to see what it was."
Santley's idea for the SurfBooms and the OILiNEX product inside them was spawned by a small oil spill that occurred inside the fledgling Green Foam factory in San Clemente, Calif., last year. When his partner, Steve Cox, 51, responded by throwing some of the recycled surfboard foam on the spill they immediately noticed it's effectiveness in soaking up the oil.
"The oil bonds to the same closed cell foam that rejects water," Santley explains. "So the cleanup was simple, like scooping cat poop out of kitty litter." But Santley and Cox were too busy surviving to do anything else but focus on the future of Green Foam at that time.
Santley, 44, grew up working in and around Orange County's busy surfboard factories where polyurethane foam cores are blown, molded, shaped, and laminated with polyester resins. "Surfers can get pretty sanctimonious about the environment," he says. "On the one hand we're coastal guardians and we take that job very seriously, but the bottom line is we're as addicted to oil as anyone else. Polyurethane foam, polyester resins, neoprene wetsuits--they're all petroleum based."
Santley considers himself a pragmatic environmentalist. His entire Green Foam venture was the result of a journey he and his friends embarked on a few years ago when they formed a non-profit called ReSurf.org, which set out to reduce waste created in the surf industry. "The residual foam left over from surfboard construction alone is horrible for landfills because it's high volume, low density stuff that's really hard to contain."
Santley, Cox and renowned surfboard shaper Matt Biolos quickly found a viable use for the excess foam when they met up with local asphalt companies. John Frederickson of California based Escondido Asphalt Sand and Dust found the surfboard foam to be an ideal filler ingredient. Mixing the pulverized material with molten asphalt before mixing the heated aggregate not only renders the toxic material inert, and it volumizes the mix, making it more cost effective.
According to Frederickson, "The concept of 'paving roads with surfboards' is exciting and realistic."
As headlines in the Gulf grow increasingly dire, Cox reminded Santley of their little factory incident a year earlier, and having just licensed their Green Foam business to the industry leader, they decided to act on the old idea they tabled.
"It was heartbreaking watching BP pour so many chemicals into the ocean--chemicals permitted by our own EPA--because separating oil from water isn't rocket science. It doesn't require toxic chemicals or multi-milliondollar machines. You just need to let physics do the work for you." That is exactly what Santley and Cox claim their new OILiNEX product does.
While they're pitching their SurfSoaker Booms and OILiNEX product as a solution to surface oil, Santley and Cox also believe it could be pumped into the water at depth to help bring underwater slicks to the surface. "This stuff rises straight to the top even with oil bonding to it, and we hope to prove that on a big scale."
The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind for the two surfers. On Saturday, June 29, Santley and Cox shot the short demonstration (above). The next morning they made a two-hour drive to Palm Springs to show potential backers. "And our phones were blowing up all the way back," Santley explains.
While Santley was securing capital Cox was on the line with their Louisiana based partner, Dan Fitzgerald, who, with the help of parish leaders, located the perfect 40,000 square-foot oceanfront factory where construction on the SurfSoaker booms could begin.
The only hurdle remaining--a big one--was getting the proper permission. If there's one thing we've learned over the past month it's navigating the tangled web of government red tape isn't easy even if you're in the government. However, when Petersen saw the demo video they got just the boost they needed. "Anything that works needs to be used at this point," Petersen says. "I have no reason to doubt Joe given our history, so I sent it to the EPA right away."
The EPA's initial email response was for Santley to contact BP directly, and begin third-party testing. While Santley and Cox have yet to hear from BP, Santley did get a phone call from Leigh DeHaven, Product Schedule Manager for the Regulation and Policy Development Division of the Office of Emergency Management at the EPA.
"She hadn't seen the video," says Santley. "But Gary [Petersen] told her it was real so she said she didn't need to." DeHaven told him she would fast-track the backing of his material as an approved sorbent. The "sorbent letter" arrived in Santley's office Thursday morning.
"With this now in our hands we can go straight to the Coast Guard, who, if all goes well, will play a huge role in putting the SurfSoaker booms to work." Meanwhile, Santley is tackling factory logistics while appeasing the press. The same CNN producers who did a feature on Green Foam with Anderson Cooper in May are among those sending Santley's phone over the edge of his desk, hoping for another story.
"There's too much to do right now," he says. "I told them I'd see them when I get there. Right now we're looking for the right machine to help us with the booms. I want to have the factory operational a week."
Whether they get Coast Guard cooperation or not, Santley says he and his friends are likely to take matters into their own hands once he arrives in the Gulf region late this week.
"I've made a lot of friends there through surfing," he says. "They're all sick of seeing nothing being done. People who work the front lines always learn the same thing: when locals band together to share ideas, resources, and ingenuity, they execute better than anyone else. So the sooner we realize that this is our ocean -- for us to take care of -- the better."
